How to get started with OKRs and Dashboards

Objectives and Key Results, along with Dashboards, can be incredibly useful tools to help align your team and visualize your progress. Here’s a sequential guide to help your company get started:

1. Educate your team.  Begin by explaining the concept of OKRs and the benefits of Dashboards to your team. Make sure everyone understands the purpose, importance, and means by which these tools can contribute to the company’s success.

2. Identify your objectives. Objectives are high-level organizational goals. Start by identifying your company’s aims and a specific timeframe related to your MTP and Moonshots. Objectives should be qualitative, ambitious, and inspiring.

3. Define key results. For each objective, define between two and five key results. These are specific, measurable outcomes that indicate progress toward the objective. Remember, Key Results should be quantifiable and achievable and lead to objective grading.

4. Align OKRs. Ensure that the OKRs of different departments or individuals within the organization align with the company’s overall OKRs. This will ensure everyone is working towards the same overarching goals.

5. Set up your dashboard. Choose a platform or software that suits your needs for a Dashboard. This could be a business intelligence tool, a project-management system, or even a shared spreadsheet, depending on the complexity of your needs and the size of your team.

6. Integrate data sources. Connect relevant data sources to your Dashboard. These might include financial systems, customer-relationship-management systems, project-management tools, and other data sources relevant to your key results.

7. Design dashboard layout. Decide on the layout and visualization types (i.e., graphs, charts, or tables) that will best represent your OKRs. Aim for clarity and simplicity.

8. Train your team. Provide training and support to your team on how to use and update the Dashboard. This will ensure that everyone can actively engage with the tool.

9. Regularly review and update your OKRs and Dashboard. This will keep your team focused and informed about progress. Typically, OKRs are set quarterly and reviewed weekly or monthly.

10. Iterate and improve. Based on the insights gained from regular reviews, adjust your OKRs and refine your Dashboard as necessary. Remember, Dashboards are flexible tools designed to adapt to an ExO’s evolving business needs.

Implementing OKRs and Dashboards is a collaborative and iterative process. It encourages open communication, transparency, and a data-driven culture within the organization.

One of the best features of Dashboards is that they allow you to test new scenarios and operations and quickly see the results—some of which may transform your company. We’ll look at that process in the next chapter: Experimentation. 

Key Resources/Links where you can learn more

- Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth, by John Doerr 

- Measure What Matters OKR Starter Kit by John Doerr and Coda

- Dashboards—ExO Insight




Companies that provide drag and drop Dashboard builders

- Tableau / ArcGIS

- Snowflake (and other…)—streaming of data (Apache Kafka)

- Big Tech company platform offerings e.g., Microsoft: Azure

- PowerBI

- Google Fusion Tables, Google Studio

- AWS Redshift + (streaming data analysis tools)

- DashboardFox

- Domo




Open-source tools:

- E.g., for Python: …(Plotly Dash)

- R-Studio which has a web export (R Shiny) 

- Redash